What Curiosity Killed
by Lilly K
Summary: "The true nature of innocence is not goodness, it is curiosity." AU, my take on what might have happened had the writers of Legend thought more like me. Lili/Darkness, but instead of her being corrupted, they both facilitate a change in each other (Oh stop, it's not as mushy/generic as it sounds! Just read it!) Res ipsa loquitur. T for mild spiciness.
1. Chapter 1

**What Curiosity Killed**

(A Legend 1985 AU fanfic)

"The true nature of innocence is not goodness, it is curiosity."

Lili had not thought much about why she touched the unicorn. It simply seemed like the natural thing to do before she was told that it was a grave offense. She did not give much thought to exploring the treasures of an enemy's lair, or dancing with a gown of shadow. She opened her eyes feeling peaceful, but the tranquility quickly gave way to fear, tightening the sides of her lungs as she peered up at the towering demon before her. She shakily pushed herself to her feet, reluctant to betray any of the weakness she felt as she faced the crimson beast.

"Eat!" he billowed, gesturing to a table set with food and wine

"I'm not hungry," she said, shaking, trying and failing to formulate a coherent plan.

"You lie," he laughed, "Just to please me."

"I do nothing for your pleasure," she snapped. "And furthermore, I am a princess. I will not sit. You will kneel." The words coming out of her mouth were natural. As natural as reaching out toward the unicorn. It would have surprised her to hear them, had she been watching herself, but though there was no conscious thought behind her words, it was gratifying to say them.

Though her words were natural to the Princess, Darkness certainly had not expected them.

"What?" His expression grew harsh for a moment, and then melted back into a putrid, syrupy grin. "What... I mean to say is... Would it not be more comfortable, princess, to sit with me and talk?"

"You defy me, and expect my cooperation?" she shouted at the glistening ruby form that loomed over her, "If you do not do as I say, you shall have no audience with me. Whatever you have to say can be said at my feet."

Darkness gawked at her in wonder. Was this truly an innocent? One with a pure spirit? He had imagined such a girl as meek and naive. The true nature of innocence was unknown to him, who was corrupted from his nascence by his Ruined Master. He knew it was unknown to him, but he had imagined it many times as something that would give him great pleasure to obliterate/crush/destroy. He grunted, wrinkling his nose as if smelling something unpleasant, and bent to one knee, "As you command... princess."

The cloud of fear choking Princess Lili dissolved as the demon prostrated himself. She was emboldened by her small success, and looked down upon his twisted ebony horns more with measured caution than fright. She approached him, eyes traveling from his horns to his tiny coal-black eyes, sunken in deep pockets of skin, looking up at her with a longing expression she did not understand. As she had reached out to touch the unicorn, the jewels, the dress, she found herself reaching for the base of the creature's terrible horns.

He closed his eyes, breathing out, and she wondered why he said nothing. She paused, touching his forehead, and then said quietly, "You may speak."

"I offer your highness... a gift. My gift is of eternity. I offer you this rose, princess, my heart, my soul, my love."

Lili removed her hand from the head of Darkness. She looked at him harshly, as an older sibling would look at a younger one who broke a rule. She saw so much that she did not understand in the red form before her. She heard so many foreign tones and novel inflections in his voice, and felt strange emotions surging from those tiny black eyes.

Princess Lili did not quite understand all that she understood, but a part of her knew it like an unspoken language. The way he bent his neck to look up at her and dug the tips of his claws into his knee, she knew somehow that he had no power over her, and that she had every sort of power over him. Her hand returned, this time to his cheek, and her fingers traveled down to his chin, cupping it in her gentle grip. "Release the unicorn, and I shall consider your proposal. Kill it, and I never shall."

His loud, malicious laugh echoed through the caverns as he stood and stepped away from the princess. He could not entirely mask the nervous emptiness in his voice, "You shall consider it soon enough, when night embraces the world and I am all that's left for your company."

"I would sooner consider the moss upon the walls," she scoffed.

"YOU WILL BE MINE!" He billowed, abandoning his pretense, "One way or another!"

She raised an eyebrow, moving swiftly, yet without faltering, "But something tells me you'd much prefer my company _alive_ ..." she said, grasping a large goblet of wine from the table and stepping quickly nearer the fire, "to that of a charred _corpse_. Do not believe for a moment that you could ever, ever set yourself upon me, force yourself over me, or harm me in any way without a certainty that your carefully planned out eternity WILL NOT go as planned!"

He raised his fists, and lowered them in frustration, crying out, "Insufferable woman! The sunlight is my enemy! It must be..."

"Then stay indoors during daylight. Cover yourself with an umbrella. For goodness sakes, wear a heavy cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, but don't kill a creature that's done nothing to harm you. It is the sun that offends you, not the unicorn. I order you to leave it in its peace."

Darkness tightened his mouth in thought, and silence wound through the cracks in the room like a venomous snake. What was one unicorn's life, when compared to the beauty of an eternal night? Darkness had never seen the sun, for he knew that a single ray of its light would destroy him forever, but he had always loathed the thought of it for cutting off his reach. Curse it! … But, the touch of a young woman, the thought of her smiling in his arms as they sat upon his infernal throne... touching _him_... the thought of it was too much to deny. Curse her! The little siren was tempting him... and it was working!

"I must... have a moment. Alone." He bowed.

"As you wish," she said, expressionlessly, running her hand along the side of the wine goblet.

He turned quietly on his cloven hooves and vanished behind the mirror.

He was gone. This opportunity was Lili's best chance of escaping Darkness. She could have run... but where would she have gone? Looking back, the princess thought that she might have stayed because she held onto some desperate belief that she could save the unicorn. In truth, she stayed because she could not stop herself from wondering how someone could step through a mirror. She peered cautiously around the glittering room, and crept closer to the mirror. She saw no trace of Darkness there, only her own reflection. She looked quite grown up, she thought, though she felt half naked in a gown with such a neckline.

Her eyes only lingered upon her reflection for a moment before she held out the wine goblet toward the mirror. It passed through the glass in a shimmering shower of silver, just as Darkness had, and passed back out again whole and unharmed. Lili wondered what it might be like to step into the mirror, and as she wondered, so she moved through her own reflection into the realm of the Sire of Demons, the Ruined Master.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

It was darker still behind the mirror than in the caverns. There was no color, everything was black, and yet somehow Lili maintained a sense of the space around her. Behind the mirror, she was on a ledge, like the side of a cliff, overlooking an endless chasm. All the princess could see at first was the edge, but as she peered into the abyss, she saw that it was not empty, but a network of stairwells and walkways wove in every direction, leading down to somewhere. It was so quiet, Lili could hear herself breathe. She stepped farther in, cautiously lowering her foot onto the staircase, putting a small amount of weight on it, and gradually more, in case it should collapse under her weight.

She heard a distant echo from below. She closed her eyes and ran down the stairs, doing her best to remain quiet. She was able to sense the space around her with her eyes closed as well as when they were open. Down and down into the deep she descended, unsure of what she would find. There seemed to be no life there. There were indentations in the walls where coffins might be kept, and empty sconces for lamps that weren't there.

Farther down, she was able to hear the smooth pitches of Darkness's voice, though she could not discern what it said. She climbed slower now, in as much silence as she could manage. There was another voice. A soft hiss that lingered on the ear after it finished its sound. The set of stairs stopped at the end of a vast, wide bridge made from the skeleton of an enormous dragon. Lili thought she could hear the bones beneath her cracking with every step. She could hear the words Darkness spoke more clearly now, though not the words of the other voice.

"I will not! There is some way you are keeping from me!" he shouted at the other voice. "I cannot conceive that there is not some spell, an enchantment, something that will give her heart to me."

"Seduction, my foolish son, is the only spell that binds a heart. And you have _failed _because you could not control your brutish mind for even a momentary plot_. There is no chance, no spell, or charm in all of my abyss that will remedy your stupidity. _All that is left... is to destroy."

Darkness breathed out deeply, staring at the ashen corpse of the Ruined Master, the Scorched Angel, lying in his sarcophagus of emeralds. The Master's only light left danced green on the surface of his eyes, just enough to see the gory details of his shriveled face and crippled, blackened wings.

"Father," said Darkness, crossing his right arm over his chest and bowing to the thing in the sarcophagus, "I know what I must do."

Darkness turned to leave the chamber so quickly that Lili scarcely had time to think. She jumped into one of the coffin holes to hide herself as he passed out of the Master's burial room and across the spine of the long-dead wyrm... but the coffin-hole Lili chose was not empty, as the others had been.

A decrepit hand wrapped around her face, gripping her mouth shut as she tried to cry out. Something clinked and rattled behind her that held her in place. She struggled to free her nose from the top finger, and gasped for breath, pulling the dead hand down with both of hers, but the corpse's other hand gripped her tight. Darkness was out of sight now, and may not hear her even if she could get her mouth free to scream. The corpse turned her away from the opening and toward its casket with a firm yank. It was adorned with a crown of diamonds on its hairless head, strands of pearl around its neck, and gemstone rings on its withered fingers. Its dry, leathery mouth cracked as it opened, pulling the neck of the princess close, but she kicked against it to push away, pulling off its arm that clattered to the floor. She stumbled back, crawling on her hands away from the dead thing falling apart before her. It moved no more.

...

Darkness emerged from the mirror with his face set. It was time to kill the unicorn, there could be no more waiting. Waiting would only give her a chance to trap him, to trick him into setting it free.

"And then," the cold voice behind the looking glass had said, "Once she has what she wants, she will no more be beholden to you. Naive son! Did you think for a moment that she would truly consider a beast like you? She will abandon you to your miserable fate to be forever forsaken. Or, if she is merciful, she will lure you out into the sun and kill you!"

Darkness had never known sorrow before, but when he felt it now, for the first time, it was marbled with anger. Part of him wanted to despise her, to crush her innocence and let her die there in his domain, but another part would not let him do it. It was not love. He did not want to love, he wanted to win. The only thing he could do was to kill the unicorn, and let the princess decide then if she could forget. If she couldn't... he tried to put the thought out of his mind. His fangs burned with the thought of the unicorn's blood. He would keep her from forsaking him somehow.


	3. Chapter 3

Lili emerged from the mirror, shaking, out of breath from running, and not in her right mind. She stumbled and collapsed into the eerie-looking chair at the end of the dining table. Darkness was not there. The power Lili felt before when he knelt at her feet was gone. He was unpredictable now. After hearing that voice, the part of her that sensed danger knew that Darkness wasn't pulling his own strings. Now she didn't know what awful things he was capable of.

She knew she didn't have much time, but she was exhausted. Her mind was spinning, and she felt her whole body relaxing in the chair. It seemed warm, comfortable, inviting. She thought of the day when she had fallen asleep at Nell's cottage as a child. She felt a strange, pleasant, tingling sensation coming from the parts of the chair that touched her. She wanted to melt into it.

In the doorway of the unicorn's prison, Darkness fell to his knees with a gasp. He could feel the sensations in his body of Lili sitting on the enchanted chair, just as if she was sitting there with him. It was too much. He stood again after a moment, leaning against the side of the chamber to hold himself up as the soft, wonderful magic flowed through his being. He could not keep the edges of his lips from curving into a satisfied smile. The Ruined Master was wrong. Darkness would win. He would have both—his dark queen, and his eternal night.

…

Lili didn't remember falling asleep, but when she opened her eyes, she was resting in the arms of Darkness, who looked down at her with a greedy sort of pride. Was the unicorn... dead? The world still felt whole—perhaps more whole than it ever had. The cloak of rest lay heavy upon Princess Lili's limbs. She did not want to move. For the first time since she was kidnapped, she did not feel defiant. Perhaps a world without light would not be so cold... No! It was a terrible thought, to feel so peaceful, to not care if harm had come to the unicorn. She looked up at Darkness, to his twisted face, and saw no compassion, nothing kind and thoughtful, only a fearsome smugness. His muscular body was a distorted, primal fusion of man and beast. Yet sitting in that chair, looking up as if in a dream, Lili knew that any person could have been like him. Had she been raised by the Devil, perhaps she would have been. Perhaps she would have been worse. He knew no comfort, and there was no escape for him from this dark fate his Master had assured. He was beyond hope now.

She sat up in his lap, and kissed him. He tried to prolong her kiss, but she pulled away. "I'm sorry," she said, "I can't be a part of this. I can never be a part of your cruel world. I don't have the heart for it," her mouth quivered as she spoke, and her eyes glistened. "I must go."

Darkness's mouth hung ajar. He felt himself breaking. No words came. He did not try to hold her down. She got to her feet, bowed to him, and turned to go. As she stepped slowly and heavily across the cavern floor, she thought of a story in one of her books about a gentle maiden named Belle who was captured by a horrid looking beast. _She_ had taught him to love... but it was only a story.

Darkness held a hand out toward her, "My lady, wait..."

She turned only her face toward him, which was now quite red around the eyes.

"I did not kill the unicorn. I was detained. It still lies in my prison." Why was he telling her this? Had she not caused him enough anguish? Had she not forsaken him then?

But, would the sun's defeat matter to him, now that he had lost her? In his broken state, Darkness would decompose, eternally fragmenting in his eternal night, if he could not love her.

"You..." she stopped, "You did not?" She turned toward him, shaking. "But you would have."

"Yes," he said desperately. "Yes I would. And I would have begged your forgiveness."

"And you will?"

"No!" He boomed, "I would not think of it now. All of this has made me sick," He stood from the chair, stepping toward her, and wrapped her in his arms. "Despise me if you must, princess, but I shall do what I can to attend to your desires. If one such desire is to see the unicorn freed, then you will."

She stepped back, taking his hands, "Show me."

To hell with the Ruined Master and his wretched scheming. To hell with eternal night, Darkness thought as he walked with her, quickly and certainly, hand in hand into the unicorn's prison. He would set the unicorn free, and if he would not then be rid of his suffering, perhaps he would do as the Ruined Master had so darkly predicted and follow fair Princess Lili into the sun to die.

There it was, the unicorn, bound in chains and helpless. He could still do it, a part of him told himself. He could still kill the creature before her eyes—make her pay for the pain that she made him feel. He could have. Instead, he chose not to bring any more pain into this miserable morning. He approached the creature with the intent to release it, as he had said.

Before he could touch it, the forest-boy, Jack, jumped from a hidden ledge on the wall between Darkness and the she-unicorn. His blade was drawn, and he showed no hesitation, brandishing it toward the towering demon before him. "Now!" he shouted, and a small sparkling light bounded up, up, and out to give the signal.

"No! Stop!" Lili shouted, approaching Jack. The boy took her in his arm and guarded her with his sword against the claws of Darkness.

"Don't worry, Lili, I still trust you. I've always trusted you. I have a plan. We can save the unicorn." He lunged toward Darkness, who parried Jack's blow with a growl, striking at him with the blunt heel of his hand to knock him over.

"Stop this, Jack! Listen to me!" she tugged at the back of his scale-mail tunic, "You mustn't fight him."

"Don't be scared, Lili," he said, dodging the blow, "He's not unbeatable now. You'll see."

"It's not that, Jack, it's-" Lili began, but Darkness was quicker this time, and hit Jack hard across the brow, sending him to the floor with a groan.

Lili rushed to Jack's side, and as she did, the prison chamber flooded with reflected sunlight.

Darkness shielded his eyes, and held his hand out in front of him, "What is this strange magic? I do not feel the effects of any spell..."

"... sunlight," Princess Lili whispered. "Darkness, this is sunlight!"

"This? …" He looked about him, waving his hands through it like a fool. He laughed a loud, echoing laugh that filled the whole cavern as it turned into the most savage roar that Jack and Lili had ever heard.

"He... deceived me! … how could I have been so blind!" Darkness stormed out of the prison chamber toward the mirror.

Lili pulled Jack up onto her knee. He was bruised, but he was breathing. "Oh, Jack, Jack!" Lili found herself crying now, after everything. He opened an eye, sitting up as he clutched his head. "Quickly, Princess Lili, we must pick the lock before we run out of time. Hand me that knife mounted there on the wall."

Gump sprung down from one of the rafters, "Are you alright, Jack? You look like you're turning purple on that spot. Do humans usually turn purple after a heroic rescue?"

Jack laughed at the comment as Lily pried the sacrificial dagger from the wall hanging.

"I don't know how to pick locks," she said, holding the handle side of the dagger out to Jack.

"I'll do it, dearie," Gump chirped, snatching it nimbly from her hands, "You attend to him."

"I am very glad you're alright, Jack," she said, grasping his hand. In the distance, she heard a great crash and a clatter, like smashing glass. He leaned toward her to kiss her, but she turned her face away.

Patting his shoulder, she said, "I'm sorry. I can't. Not yet. I mean... no. I'm sorry, Jack. I don't feel that way. About us. About you. I'm just happy that you're safe.

His eyes glittered, "Really?"

"Really. I wouldn't lie about it. That's just cruel," she said, brushing his hair aside from his bruise, "I don't think about you like that. I thought I would marry you because you are my best friend, and I didn't want to be traded like a commodity to some foreign prince... but now I see that there's more to it than that. I don't think about you … that way. Not really. But never mind that, are you sure you're alright? That was a nasty knock."

The lock clicked open, and Gump tossed aside the dagger, unchaining the unicorn. "We must leave! Now!"


	4. Chapter 4

********Author's Note: I was really hoping to have this finished by now. This is meant to be a short fic, but more and more has come to me as I have been writing it. There will be at least and most probably only one other chapter after this.*****

Jack nodded, and Lili helped him to his feet.

"Lili," Gump called to her, "Lead the unicorn, it will follow a maiden who is pure of heart." he helped support Jack from the other side, and Lili came toward the unicorn. It recoiled from her, rearing up on its hind legs and turning away toward the far wall, away from the door.

"She is ruined!" Gump scolded, "She's not pure! Look at it, it hides its face from her!"

Jack gazed at the unicorn, and glanced helplessly at Lili, who looked flustered.

"She's corrupted! She's corrupted!" the elf cried, as he was joined by the other fair folk of the forest. Oona uttered a small cry, bolting toward the human girl in a sparkling magic blast.

"You beastly creature!" she squeaked at the princess, shooting golden sparks out of her hair,"You don't deserve his heart!" She gritted her teeth, gripping the stiff black collar of Lili's dress tight around her neck, "I should kill you now..."

"No!" Jack staggered from Gump's shoulder to Lili's defense. "She's... my best friend," he smiled at Lili, "And even if things don't turn out just as we think they should, it doesn't mean it's all over. How many girls go on being innocent their whole lives? You can't expect Lili to be perfect, and I certainly won't let you kill her for this. I mean it."

"Jack," Oona gasped, letting Lili go, "You stubborn fool. Are you so blind?"

Jack took Lili's hand. "Well if you're so innocent, then, Oona, you lead the unicorn out."

Oona looked taken aback, "Me?" the thought had never occurred to _her_ that she might be judged by the same standards as a _mortal_ girl.

"No, the other you," Jack laughed. Lili smiled a little. For all that she had said to Jack, she knew he cared about her. She cared about him too, deeply, but there was something missing: an unbridled compulsion, a magnetism that somehow, before, she never realized he lacked.

Oona looked around, as if hoping that some other Oona would appear out of thin air and take up Jack's challenge, then folded her arms, "Do you know how ridiculous you sound?" she sputtered. "Me?"

"So you're not pure then," said Jack, nodding. "And I'll be the first to stand here and say that I don't think any one of us is. The fact that Lili was pure yesterday was exceptional, not something expected of her."

"Then what do we do?" Gump hissed, looking every bit as put off as Oona, though not showering angry golden sparks at them all. "The mare does not know her way out of the tunnels, and she isn't safe here. There are still goblins and evil spirits about who would do her harm."

Lili thought for a moment, "We could scare her out. She would be frightened, but for the unicorn's own good, it could be the only chance we have. Each one of us could take a corridor, running one ahead of the other, until she's ran to safety."

Gump looked away, folding his cheeks in his jaw. It was a good idea. He didn't want to admit how good of an idea it was. "It doesn't feel right. It's a dirty thing, to scare a gentle unicorn."

"Better than leaving her to die," said Lili, turning to the mare, "Unless you have a spare innocent hidden under that loincloth of yours."

"We risk our immortal souls!" he squeaked desperately.

"Oh, bullocks!" she threw up her hands, "If doing what we have to do to save a unicorn's life really could lose us our immortal souls, then just how good of a thing is it really to keep one? If you go on forever knowing you had to be too highly scrupulous to help someone when you could have helped them? It's not fair, it's a fate designed so that something bad could happen no matter what you decide to do. But it doesn't matter, because the only kind thing is to help the mare, and that's what we should care about most. The idea that unicorns are so sacred that they can't even be touched is rubbish. Who came up with it, anyway?"

Gump didn't know. Honestly, it was just a legend, passed down through all the people of the woods until they had believed it for no other reason than that they had heard it said.

Oona looked back and forth from Lili to Gump... "I'll take the first corridor, then?"

Jack nodded with a great big grin, "And I'll take the second, and you, Gump, take the third, and Lili, the fourth. Rest of you, follow suit. Let's hurry!"

Lili remembered leading the unicorn to safety. She remembered scrambling through the tunnels after it, hearing its frightened braying and thundering hooves against the stone. She remembered how it bounded over the marsh, away from the sinister tree, and into the distance. Safe.

She felt herself lying on the soft grass. Nothing would be the same now, but, she thought, things weren't supposed to stay the same way always, were they? She opened her eyes, and saw Jack there, sitting near her by the side of the river.

He gave her a sideways smile, looking out over the water, "You're awake."

She nodded, stretching her arms forward to shake off the sleep in her limbs.

"Would you like it if I... walked you home?" He asked.

She nodded, eyes far away. "Thank you. I think some time at home will help me feel better." She hugged him, "Oh, Jack, you were wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better defender. It seems so distant now, like a legend, or something out of a dream."

"Maybe it was," he said with a serious face, "But that doesn't mean that it is any less to us."

She took his hand, and together, they returned to the castle. The palace was quite happy to see her return, though it seemed that the two days they had spent on their adventure did not pass in the kingdom, and it was evening of the same day she roamed into the woods.

"Promise you'll visit me now," said Jack.

"Of course!" Lili laughed, "And you may visit me here as well, whenever you like. Though I shan't say it's as exciting as the forest."

"I will, then," he said, bowing. He had never bowed to her before. She was used to being treated like this, but not by Jack. It was uncomfortably distancing, though perhaps he had just tried to appear respectful in front of the people of the palace. "Goodbye," he said.

(**The story is not finished. There is more to come soon.)


	5. Chapter 5 Mini-Chapter

**MINI CHAPTER (This is not the end either. This was a whim)**

In the torchlit caverns beneath the gnarled sacrificial tree, Darkness sat, eyes closed, on the same chair where he had felt the triumph of holding Lili in his now empty arms. He could have explored the world of light that day, but for Darkness it was a day of loss. She was out there somewhere, happy because of what he chose not to have done. She had chosen the boy, he thought. Of course she had. At least if things could not be as they should for him, they would be for her—but today was a day of loss. The shards of his father's shattered looking glass strewn across the floor sparkled with their piercing testimony to that.

Why had she kissed him? She had not meant to be cruel. Why had she given him so much false hope? Darkness did not know how long he sat alone in sorrow, for in that place of evil magic all days lost in despair were one. He sat alone until an annoying fluttering light before his eyes refused to be swatted away.

"Darkness, Darkness, dreaded lord under the tree," said the tiny voice, "I have known pain like yours. I have known lost love, and self-loathing. But look at me—I can still gleam through my tears. We mustn't let it all crush us. We mustn't let it bend our bones and slash at our skins. There is still hope."

"What do you know of hope, Oona, fairy of the forest? All hope leads to loss. Leave me," he sighed. There was nothing commanding in his voice. It was soft and defeated.

"I know a hope that we can share, you and I, though it is small," She changed from the golden orb into her young, beautiful form. "And that is Lili will not marry Jack, at least not now. He told me everything. He told me how she sees him, lacking things... things I think _you_ have caused her to desire. Is this not so?"

He lifted his head, "Could it be?"

She nodded, "Then it is! And so there's still a chance I could have Jack! But if we leave it up to chance, they could change heart and be in love again. What can we do?"

Darkness pulled the alicorn from his belt, letting the hope touch his chest, letting the possible lead him out of inaction and onto its last, desperate course. His face was wrinkled with the emotions of a lifetime that wore him down as they burst out in a day, "Through dreams," he said, raising the horn, "I influence mankind."


	6. Chapter 6

**(No, this isn't the last one. There's more. I just thought this was a good cut off point to post.)**

Lili slept in a turbulent cycle of waking and dreams that night. At first, her mind was sore, and she could not remember the dreams. They were short bursts of thought that made her feel weak and worn. A black horn, a ruddy hand, a sweat-soaked thigh, feeling pressure on the back of her legs, and a surge of pleasant energy. Her sheets were clumped together, clamped between her knees. In the dark of the night, she wobbled from her bed to the case of books. She pulled "Beauty and the Beast" from the crowded shelf, and held it tightly to her chest, pushing herself into it, returning to bed with the book clutched in her arms. In the morning she remembered nothing, but the book reminded her of some other story she had heard long ago, and she tried to piece it together. So the nights continued, on and on, until the book was so worn that it started to fall apart.

A year passed. Jack visited less, and Lili almost never went into the woods. Her duties as a princess were becoming harder and harder to escape from. Her parents had betrothed her to the lesser prince of the kingdom's most valuable trade partner. She no longer felt like protesting it—her royal duties were inevitable, and it wasn't exactly true to say that she did not want to marry. She had thoughts every night, filled with longing to be with a man. The prince was handsome in an expensive sort of way, as these princes often are, and he was a little older—twenty to her eighteen, and already a decorated member of his kingdom's navy. He had a prominent chin, but a soft face, and boyish freckles. Lili had met him on only two occasions, and thought of him more as an ornament than a person. Could that be how she looked to other people when visiting foreign courts?

She was not angry at her parents for bargaining her away. She was not angry at her groom-to-be, who seemed more eager to to leave on his next voyage than to converse with her parents, but she was not resigned either. She just let the days pass, doing nothing extraordinary, until before she knew it, her mother had asked if she had wished to invite Jack to her wedding feast.

It felt like a very important question. It felt like something Lili had been avoiding. "I wish to invite him myself," said the princess, turning to her handmaiden, "Prepare my traveling attire."

Her mother chuckled, "I confess, I was alarmed when you first introduced that spirited lad to the palace. I thought you may have had your mind set on marrying _him!"_

Princess Lili smiled, "Do not take what I say too seriously, dear mother, but he was quite fond of me when we were children. There was a time when I would have wished for us to be married, though of course that time is long past. I simply wish to give him the message myself, as a true friend should. He brightened my girlhood years with his company, and we have not visited in months.

The queen nodded, "Tell him how happy you are, tell him all the good things about Prince Westerguard, and he is sure to come and celebrate those things with you. Does he still feel toward you the way he once did?"

"I confess, I do not know," Lili said, looking away from her, "I suppose he may have put those thoughts away to respect me. The way he behaves has certainly changed like that."

"Then he is wise, and kind," said the queen, "I would count him as a savage no more, should he walk among the courtiers, but as one who has done what is right toward my daughter. I'm sure your father would agree."

Lili tried to smile back at her mother. Jack was always a boy of the wilds, but he was never a savage. Compared to the courtiers, he was not savage at all. He was brilliant, a creative genius, and they shared the gifts of their imagination together. She remembered pretending all sorts of strange things in his company—talking to finches and deer, sneaking up to peer at unicorns through the bushes, being chased by goblins through a snowstorm, and even a daring rescue from a curse that threatened to cover the world in darkness forever. How funny they were, the ideas children had, and how she wished she could have ideas like them again sometimes. The prince didn't seem to care for such things. All he talked about was battle and strategy. Though perhaps she was being unfair—all she had talked about with him was her kingdom's finances. They really had spoken only sovereign to sovereign, kingdom to kingdom, and didn't know each other at all. Maybe that was why he did not seem special.

After donning her traveling cloak, Lili longed too much for some last small bit of adventure before surrendering herself to the rest of her future life. She asked her guard to remain outside her chamber and wait for her, and slid down through the window as she hadn't done in a long time.

She wound across the soft growing plants on the trail past Nell's cottage, whose invitation it would be alright to let her attendants take care of. She hadn't planned to stop there, but her feet slowed and her cloak hung heavy to the fallen leaves as she smelled sweet baking things. She thought of the day when she had fallen asleep at Nell's cottage as a child... There was another memory, too. One that wasn't clear before, but she now saw it in her mind as clear as the oaks and pines along the path. She was slumped in a frightful looking chair, sighing quietly in exhaustion, feeling pleasing things in that terrible place, thinking of that day at Nell's when she slept next to the fire after a bowl of sweet, sticky porridge. It was like a rush, like a wave that hit the princess squarely in the face. There were memories that this forest had kept to itself. Memories that she was not able to take with her when she left it. She continued deeper into the woods, no longer looking for Jack.


	7. Chapter 7

The dreams returned to her. She remembered the lapses of moments between clutching Beauty and the Beast in her bed, and her quivering body held by the Lord of Darkness, asking him to please her, abandoning herself to his touch, and holding herself close to him. She remembered his pointed fangs hovering fondly over her neck as he breathed passionate warmth into her and she anticipated his kiss. This is what Jack had lacked. This is what she never felt between the forest boy and herself. This is the way she never felt about anyone, except Darkness. Not love—she had felt love for many friends—but the purest, most fondly unifying form of lust.

She didn't understand it without the memories. Before, it seemed these feelings bore no explanation, and she had not associated them with anything or anyone. As she had reached out to touch the unicorn, the jewels, the dress, this too felt absolutely right.

…

Lili followed the little bobbing sparkle in the corners of her eyes. It led her to the great tree, where the bog glorbled and sputtered with putrid green murk. Over the branches of fallen trees, and across the rocks, and down, down, down... she followed the light into that foul cavern where in newly colored memories she felt herself waking with a cold tremble of fright.

Darkness sat with downcast eyes, stroking the alicorn. He did not see the princess as she entered the ancient passage. He did not expect her. The light made a small noise, as quiet as the pop of a soap bubble, and vanished into the fireplace. It was just loud enough to cause the forlorn demon to shift his dreary gaze in the direction of the sound.

At first he thought the sight of Princess Lili was some cruel trick of his mind. He peered at her in the dancing firelight, but she did not vanish. "Have you come, gentle vision, on behalf of the unicorn?" He asked quietly. She stepped closer, looking now at the horn in his hands. It was real. It was all real. It had always been real.

"I had thought at first that the fair princess might remember the suffering of that pure creature, if not my own, and return to me one last time to ask for the stallion's horn. Answer me, now. Are you a torment of my guilt, or have you another errand here?"

"I am neither a torment nor a vision from the unicorns, my lord," she stood in the doorway, half-sheathed in shadow, "But your lady, here of my own will, to seek what I once left here in these halls."

The shards of the Ruined Master's broken mirror still shone against the dirty ground. They had never been picked up. "The princess comes, as lovely after one year as she is ever," he held out his hand to her, and she came to him, kneeling, pressing her face into his knees, hugging his calves with her thin, pale arms.

"I am sorry to have hurt you, lord. I should have realized then that what I felt was all for you. I meant you no torment."

He placed his hands under her arms, and lifted her up onto his lap, stroking her hair with his sleek black claws. There was no past. The pain was smoke, not flame somewhere far away. The year had been so empty, perhaps it had never even happened.

"I was foolish to abandon you," she said, attempting to remain dignified and not to cry, "I came because the dreams I now remember feel more true than all the days I've spent this year awake. Were they my own conception, or from you?"

"Ours," he said, nuzzling the top of her head as she leaned it on his shoulder, letting her mouth hang open, breathing her short, hot breaths against his skin. "It was through the magic of the alicorn that I crafted them, using thoughts already germinated... deep within your mind."

There was so much to ask... so much to say... yet she did not find herself saying anything. She only found herself giving in to the passion she so longed to savor with the Lord of Darkness.

…

Every part of Lili felt calm and happy, like some warming winter wine flowed through her veins instead of blood. She and Darkness, Princess and Lord, were lying across the chair together, united. She saw the same triumphant look he had worn when she awoke in his arms a year ago, but she felt like she understood it better now, and felt much the same. She was proud too, and she was amorous, and she had exactly what she wanted, just like he did.

Darkness extended the unicorn's horn toward the table like a wand, summoning the wine goblet to his hand. He offered Lili a sip, which she took without thinking. It was a sort of salty, metallic tasting liquid, but it was rich and pleasant. Everything was pleasant. He drank it as she looked down at the horn.

"What did happen to the unicorn?" Princess Lili asked as Darkness stroked her. She held out her hand to take the alicorn, and he handed it to her.

"The power in this horn has greatly dimmed," Darkness sighed, "I dreaded its wane, since it would no longer compose the dreams we loved so well. My final chance to reach you in a dream faded away not two weeks ago. This diminishing can only mean that the unicorn has lost all magic now. It lives on, merely as a white horse; a fate that can never be undone. The horn will still retain a paltry charge—a mere shadow of its former power."

Lili kissed Darkness on the forehead, on the nose, and on the chin. He placed the goblet down and held her back with one hand and lower down with the other hand, playing with his lips on hers.

"Merely a horse..." Lili whispered, an inch from his face, "And if it weren't for you, and the choice you made to use the horn for my sake, perhaps I'd be merely a horse instead."

Darkness gave her a puzzled look.

"Going about a life without magic, I mean. Never knowing what I might have missed without you."

He laughed, "My long, miserable life, dearest Lili, could hardly have been called enchanting until the day we met. It is delightful and disarming that you would think me so selfless as to do all of this for you... no. I have done this for myself; yet it seems what I have done for myself is something that you would also have me do for you."

"Why leave your wish up to these dreams, my lord?" Lili asked, "Why not visit me at my castle yourself and speak with me?"

"... Because," whispered the demon, holding the princess like a precious treasure, "I could not have borne the rejection I thought inevitable."

She held him tightly. She pressed the side of her face into his neck, and he sighed happily, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"And my cruel world, you said you'd never be a part of..."

"The whole world is cruel. I've learned that now. It's not made for innocents. No matter what, there will be choices—difficult choices that have some negative outcome no matter what you decide to do. You can't go through life without losing something, so you have to be very careful when picking and choosing what to lose. My judgment of you was premature. I shuddered to think of how spoiled, greedy, and corrupt I knew I would be, had I been raised as you were raised."

"My father," Darkness spoke as his muscles tensed, "Was a seething, bitter master. He let the difficulties of the cosmos ruin him, and he was spurned by the sun and his fellow angels. His wish was only for ruin, and it ruined only him. My mother Lilith, matriarch of the demons, was an elegant and proud creature. At the zenith of her beauty, she had a face quite like yours. My gifts to you were her treasures once."

Lili thought of the corpse robed in jewels behind the mirror, the one that had grabbed her and pulled her into its coffin. She thought it had been trying to attack her. Perhaps it had been trying to warn her instead.

"My father's ruin decayed all in his once noble realm, including my mother," Darkness continued, "And there is not much left of either of them now." He looked at the shards of the mirror on the floor. Lili consoled him with a firm squeeze around the chest.

"But this is all too tiresome. Talk to me," Darkness asked the princess, "about innocence. What is it like?"

"Innocence," Lili said to him thoughtfully, "is not having to be afraid of something new, because you have never been scarred. It's always wishing for adventures to happen, and letting them. It's taking a leap without thinking that anything bad will happen. It's letting the wonder inside of you run wild and free, and enjoying what's in front of you without having to worry about things that hurt you. It doesn't mean you've never, ever made the wrong decision. It doesn't even mean you're a good person. It just means that you don't have to think in terms of choices, because everything you do feels right."

"An unchecked curiosity," he mouthed, "Can be both a blessing and a curse, princess."

"Yes," she said plainly. "In order to keep innocence through certain choices in life, something else must be lost. Pragmatism, safety, desire, or something else. It's not some paragon of virtues like everyone says. Sometimes it is simply foolishness."

Darkness laughed at how serious she looked when she spoke about it, like she was scolding someone. The regal authority of Lili was showing. Her face softened into a smile as she felt his chest move with laughter and saw his lips brim with delight. They were together now, and they were the happy rulers of a new and more just era in the underground kingdom for many years—quite a few more than mortals are apt to live. They went adventuring often and very seldom kept in commune with the kingdoms of men, except for a few visits to old Nell and her descendents now and then. For generations, flush red lilies grew beside the cottage where the missing princess once fell asleep.

From time to time, Lord Darkness and Lady Lili found innocence very useful. Curiosity killed every gloom that ever crept its ugly form through the pieces of the mirror. Their adventures are another story, perhaps one that is lost to legend.

**Stay tuned for the epilogue (Main story is done, but there is something still unresolved that we will address. Warning: there may be some disappointment ahead.)**


	8. Chapter 8

**I plan to post some author's notes sometime in the future. It is possible that I will write more stories in the same AU at some point, but I have nothing planned at present. Thank you for taking the time to R&R.**

In the bright canopy of the enchanted forest, Oona peered at Jack through the leaves of a forsythia bush. He was muttering to himself in front of a pile of his things, stepping back and forth as if uneasy. "Three cabbages, eleven carrots... three of my favorite rocks... It's okay Oona, I see you, you can come out."

The little light floated toward him, landing on his shoulder, looking down at his things, "Those are some fine looking trinkets... thinking of making a stew?"

"Not exactly," said Jack, grinning, though his eyes were empty of the smile. "But I don't think you came to ask me for stew."

The tiny bobbing creature could hardly contain herself, and burst forth in a shower of light into her larger form.

"Dearest Jack," she giggled, "It's alright to kiss me now! You won't be unfaithful if you do."

She wrapped an arm around his waist, but he held her at arm's Length.

"What have you done to Lili?" he asked sternly.

Oona rolled her eyes, "Well it's not _my_ fault... she's gone and fallen in love with someone else! Can you imagine!" she wiggled her pointed feet in the air, unable to control her expression of glee.

"Oh yes, I heard," said Jack in a dull voice, picking up one of the cabbages, then setting it down in the same place, "She is to be married to a prince."

"Well," Oona said thoughtfully, "that's not exactly it, but who cares? You're free of her, Jack. Free to love me!" the little fairy closed her eyes, puckering her lips for the now-grown forest-boy.

"No, Oona," he said, patting her shoulder, "Come on. Snap out of it. You've been a great help to me, to all of us... but you and I both know that Lili is not my only reason not to kiss you." He bent down and looked her right in the eyes, as her lips started to quiver, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I know you said that with a fairy's love, anything is possible," said Jack, "but I can't show you that same kind of impossible love that you have for me. I might speak like a romantic, but those are just sayings I learned from the owls and the swallows. My heart is still the heart of a child. Staying here has kept me from growing up. I haven't learned as other boys have learned, and you have lived for many years, and will live for many more than I do." He paused, handing her a cabbage leaf to wipe her tears.

"I have thought about it now... for a long time," said Jack, "and realized that I must leave this forest and seek my fortune among men. There are things in that world that I have to learn, things I would never learn if I stayed here with you. I wish you and the others every happiness." he took her hand. She could not help but drop the cabbage leaf as she let her tears fall.

"But Jack," Oona choked out through her sobs, "I thought... I was certain... that now we could be together. That nothing more would stop us..."

He looked off into the distance, "I have a strong fondness for this place. I will miss you, and I will miss it here. But I must go."

"Can't you see how cruel you are, Jack?!" She cried, "I will _never be able to forget you!_"

"Then don't forget me. I won't forget you either," he gathered his things into a canvas wrap and tied it together with a vine, slinging it over his shoulder. "There's a bigger world out there than this place could even dream about. I'm not sure how it is for faeries, but boys aren't meant to be boys forever. I'll be a man someday. You would not keep a caterpillar from becoming a butterfly, would you?"

She shook her head.

"Good... here," he handed her one of his rocks, "It's my favorite one. And don't be sad, now. Part of me will always be here." He hugged the fairy gently, and started down the path out of the woods.


	9. A short note

**A Short Note To Readers:**

**I have decided to at least try working on another story in this AU. The working title is "A Foal's Fondest Wish". **

I realize this is not a real content update, and for that I am sorry. The story does not exist yet. Please accept this cute thing as an apology:

o~(^-^)~o


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